GEORGETOWN TWP., MI – A Grand Rapids-area woman with a passion for pups is opening a dog kennel centered around providing quality attention to dogs with specialized needs.
Misty Scott, the owner of Fur Baby Services in Hudsonville, is expanding from personalized pet care services to starting her own animal kennel in Georgetown Township.
She is building a new animal kennel facility at 2825 Barry St. that will focus on providing intimate, small-scale care, specializing in dogs with special needs such as reactivity, anxiety and medical conditions like diabetes, which she said larger facilities often won’t accommodate.
“The dogs that I take care of, I treat them like some of my babies,” Scott told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. “They all deserve that compassion and love, just like a human, is how I look at it.”
Scott said she has not finalized the site plans yet, but the building will have bathing and grooming areas, an office, a boarding area, a dog run and areas for the dogs to spend time, including separate spaces for dogs who don’t get along with others.
The facility will have six overnight kennels, which Scott described as 6-foot-by-6-foot “suites” that will give each dog their own space with food and water, a bed, and a small outside run.
The goal is to give each dog their own space and create a safe, comfortable environment for every animal in her care, Scott said.
“I don’t crate any dog, unless the owner wants them crated,” she said. “They have their own little suite.”
Currently, Fur Baby Services is a smaller, more personalized dog care business that offers a variety of services like pet-sitting and dog-walking, socializing and training, end-of-life and hospice care and more. Scott specializes in handling dogs that need more personalized care, including anxious or diabetic dogs or those in hospice care.
Scott said she was inspired to expand to more of a full-service dog kennel facility because many of the dogs in her care can’t be boarded at a traditional animal kennel facility due to their specialized needs. She said she wanted to provide a space where dog owners can bring their pets overnight and rest assured they’re getting the care they need.
“I take a different type of client, and I think that’s what really separates me,” she said. “A lot of them can’t be boarded anywhere else. And I’m like, there really has got to be a place that people can bring their pets that will manage those type of animals, that they should still have fun and still get to go on vacation.”
The new animal kennel facility will only take six dogs at a time, so Scott said she plans to maintain that same level of individualized care.
The Georgetown Township Planning Commission gave the green light to the new facility on Dec. 17. Frank Wiedemuth, the owner of the property, will be building the facility, Scott said.
Construction will start in the spring once the ground is thawed, with the goal of opening the facility by May, Scott said. She did not immediately have an estimated price for the project, but she said Wiedemuth will own the facility and lease it to Fur Baby Services.
